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Wolves give fans plenty to howl about, despite loss to Majors

SUDBURY, ONT.—When Bryan Connors goes to an away game, he buys an extra ticket for his child-sized stuffed wolf to occupy the seat next to him. But at his home arena, the Sudbury Wolves super fan stands behind his last-row seat as the mascot sits on his shoulders — and he howls.

“I’m a lifelong Wolves fan. Even before I was born. I came out saying, ‘Go Wolves, go!’” he said. “There’s no place like Sudbury. Everybody who plays in the OHL knows. They don’t like coming to the sixth man on the ice in Sudbury because they are so loud.”

His howl is contagious during the often-packed home games. There are 2,200 season ticket holders for the 4,450-seat arena.

“I used to hear him as a kid howling,” said 20-year-old Nathan Fragomeni. “I picked it up from him.”

There is a single Memorial Cup banner hanging from the rafters of the Sudbury Arena — the Wolves were last champions in 1932, but Sudbury loves its Junior A hockey team all the same.

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Sudbury swept the Ottawa 67s in the first round of the playoffs, but it was a different story against the Mississauga Majors in round two. The Wolves lost 4-3 in overtime Wednesday night as the Majors took the East semifinal series 4-0.

But the Wolves gave fans plenty to cheer about, with a 3-0 lead until 10:47 in the third period. Each time the Wolves score at home, a real stuffed wolf slides in from the rafters on a wire pulley system. Fans are at once on their feet.

Team captain Marcus Foligno grew up in the Northern Ontario city about 400 kilometres north of Toronto.

“It’s something special to be in a small hockey town. You (have) a lot of fans that come out — they love the game and they love the team,” the 19-year-old said. “You get a lot of fans that follow you. It boosts your confidence.”

And the team knows their fans, too. Connors has been nicknamed “Howler No. 2,” Foligno said.

“He’s pretty nuts. We have a mascot (named Howler) and then there’s him. All he does is howl. It’s fun for us to see that,” Foligno said.

Wolves fans are not restricted to locals. Phil Bouffard began supporting the pack as a student at Laurentian University in Sudbury.

Even though he now lives in Toronto, he drove to Mississauga to support the Wolves on Tuesday with three former sports administration classmates. Shirtless, in an arena full of Majors fans, the young men each taped a paper cut-out letter to the chests — P-A-C-K — and each held up a letter — W-O-L-F — to complete the homage to their team.

“Sudbury folk are way more rowdy,” Bouffard says.

“It’s more of a religion,” Nick Hodge adds.

Coach Trent Cull says the fans have maintained the love throughout the team’s “ups and downs” this season.

“One of the goals this year was to make a team that the town can be proud of. We work hard and do the best we can and we have that workboot kind of mentality,” Cull says.

The over-18 players on the team took a tour of the city’s local mines this season, which helped forge a deeper understanding of the community for newcomer Michael Sgarbossa. The 18-year-old Campbellville, Ont., native was traded to Sudbury from the Saginaw Spirit in December.

“It was cool to see what Sudbury is all about — mining. It’s a whole other world down there and to see what they actually do every day for eight hours — it’s pretty tough,” Sgarbossa says. “The conditions aren’t too well down there but it was neat to see all the machines down there and the types of people that make up Sudbury. It’s a really hard-working town.”

So what do Sudbury’s 158,000 residents do other than cheer for the Wolves?

“There’s something other than hockey?” rebukes one patron of the Doghouse, the house-turned pub located across the street from the arena.

“When the Wolves are out, it’s done for me,” says Connors.

The upside is that he gets a break from the howl. The 59-year-old sells advertisements for a local radio station and spends lots of time talking to clients on the phone.

“My doc said I should (stop howling) five years ago,” he says.

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